This is a zine dedicated to black metal written by a follower of the left hand path, This zine has been around in a different format for a while and I have decided to make an edition for www.blogger.com, for more information email occultblackmetalzine@yahoo.com, new albums as well as classic albums will be reviewed on here as long as their good quality black metal,

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Afar/Selfless/Folkvangr Records/2017 Cassette Review

Afar are a solo project from New Jersey that plays an atmospheric and depressive form of post black metal and this is a review of his 2016 album "Selfless" which was re-issued on cassette in 2017 by Folkvangr Records.

Acoustic guitar playing starts off the album and also adds in a touch of post rock along with some keyboards also being added onto the recording a few seconds later before going into a very fast and raw musical direction which also utilizes a great amount of tremolo picking and blast beats while the vocals are mostly black metal screams.

When guitar solos and leads are utilized they bring in a very melodic post black metal style and spoken word parts can also be heard briefly and the songs also bring in a great mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts and most of the tracks are very long and epic in length along with depressive screams also being added into certain sections of the recording while some songs also add in a small amount of clean singing, death metal growls and spoken word parts and the last track adds in a touch of ambient.

Afar plays a musical style that takes the r aw, atmospheric, depressive and post styles of black metal and mixes them together to create a sound of his own, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover dark, tragic, depressive, loneliness and isolation themes.

In my opinion Afar are a very great sounding atmospheric and depressive post black metal solo project and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this cassette. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Healing" "Endless Path" and "Beckoned Into Fog". 8 out of 10.